All in the family

david mckeown/staff photos
Kyle Wingle, right, of Schuylkill Haven, climbs into his No. 11K roadrunner as his father, Bill Wingle, look on during last Friday's show at Big Diamond Speedway, Forestville. Kyle, Bill Sr. and Bill Jr. comprise the Schuylkill Haven-based Wild Thang Racing team that competes every other weekend at Big Diamond.

FORESTVILLE - The Wingles are big men, all three each standing more than 6 feet tall and weighing over 300 pounds.

That may make Patsy, Bill's wife and the mother of sons Bill Jr. and Kyle, one of the most important members of the race team, even if she is a bit reluctant.

"She cooks for the entire pit crew," Bill Wingle Sr. said of his Schuylkill Haven-based roadrunner team last Friday in the pits at Big Diamond Speedway. "We have food here and drinks. Mom supplies the food for everybody.

"Mom supports the boys. She cheers them on, but Mom does not want them to do it. Mom says it's dangerous. â¦ They played football in high school. That was dangerous. They ride quads. That's dangerous. They drive race cars. That's dangerous.

"Mom is mom."

Because Bill Sr., who still climbs into a race car now and then after retiring from a full-time ride in 1997, is Dad, the sons have his blessing to race every other week at Big Diamond.

"We don't run for points," Bill Sr. said. "We run for fun, but because we can only race every other week, when we come we have to start in the rear each week. So it's harder for the boys."

Racing every other week in not a choice for the crew dubbed Wild Thang Racing.

Both Bill Sr. and Bill Jr. work at Sapa Extrusions Inc. in Cressona in shifts that render them available to race only every other weekend.

"It's actually devastating sitting in the parking lot at work and watching the modifieds drive by coming up here," said Bill Jr., a press operator at the plant. "But you've got to make a living, the money you invest in these cars."

With that living, Bill Jr. now owns the major components on the No. 11J car which Bill Sr. built. But the elder Bill Wingle still pays the bills on Kyle's No. 11K and hopes there is money remaining for his own racing effort.

"Last week was the first week I actually got my car to the track because of the budget," Bill Sr. said. "You can see we have only two cars here tonight because of the budget."

That budget pays for cars that Bill Sr. found on the Internet and then prepares into racing vehicles with engines built by Pottsville's John Showers.

"You can pick a car up for $1,000, then strip it down," Bill Sr. said. "We build the roll cages and everything ourselves. The tires, they're $100 apiece, not a lot of expense, but the motors to compete are."

Added Kyle, "A lot of things my family wants we don't get because we decided that racing was what we wanted to do. Racing is not a cheap sport. You can go out and destroy a car in one night."

For Kyle, that won't bankrupt his career, because he has other plans.

A standout lineman for Schuylkill Haven's District 11 Class A championship football team last fall, he is beginning studies soon at McCann School of Business to earn certification in heating, ventilation and air conditioning. He graduated from Schuylkill Technology Center South with a degree in plumbing.

"I wanted to branch off into the heating and ventilation field because I thought that would give me more of a wider opportunity to find a job," Kyle said. "Then once I find a job, that'll give me credibility over somebody else of why I should keep the job."

After a few years, Kyle hopes to earn enough money to sustain his own racing career just like his older brother, who had his own football career as a lineman at Schuylkill Haven.

Bill Jr. warns that path is limited by the weekly bills.

"Really, the payout that we earn as a winner won't even buy a full set of tires," Bill Jr. said. "In a normal night, I usually burn off a right rear and sometimes a left rear. I can get two or three weeks out of my right front, but I'm usually spending $200 to $300 (per program) just on tires and fuel."

Such costs don't include the new springs that Kyle asked his father to put on his car last weekend, or the charge for machine work done by Burns and Yost, Tamaqua, on the three cars.

Yet, in Bill Sr.'s mind, the sacrifice is worth it.

"I do it because I love it," Bill Sr. said of his sons and the family's race cars. "If they didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. I see it in their eyes. If they came to me tomorrow and said, 'Dad, I don't want to do it no more,' I'd sell them."

While the men of the family hit the track, Patsy Wingle sits in the Big Diamond grandstand and cheers her husband and sons when they go off to race, even if that does jumble her nerves.

"Kyle got a text today in the garage," Bill Sr. said. " 'Don't hit anybody out there on the track. Be careful out there. Don't bump into anybody.' "

Bill Sr. knows racing, just like football, is a contact sport.

"You race on the track, it's wet, it's slippery," he said. "It's hard not to bump into somebody."

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